Holiday Photos

Holidays are especially good for one thing; new pictures!

Jason, Kel, Naia and Gabriel

Shannon, Brandon, Jenna and Allyson, and of course Mickey.


Tonight I'm flying to Modesto, Jason and family arrive Tuesday afternoon. This coming Friday Mike and Kiera will drive up. My greatest desire is to get some truly excellent photos taken by Mike. Hoping to accomplish this Saturday to the best of our abilities and no small amount of coordination of the 1, 2, almost 3, and 5 year olds! Yep, definitely wish us luck.

Happy New Year!

I welcomed the new year with a head cold. Not a bad one, something that I have felt coming on for a week or so and wondered if it would get me or just move on. We were in bed a bit before midnight but our little dog Zoey woke us up for the new year when neighbors set off fireworks. She does not like those kinds of noises and slept up on the bed the rest of the night.

Kiera welcomed the new year at the Catron's house in Murrieta, most likely asleep before midnight also since they planned to be up and out of the house by 4 AM and on their way to Pasadena for the Rose Parade. Dave and Tracy have friends visiting from Arkansas and they have a dream of seeing the parade live. Bethany, Catron daughter, currently lives two blocks from Colorado Blvd and it was probablly the year to take advantage. No word yet, the parade has ended and we are anxious to hear everyone's reaction. Hope to have some pictures to post too.

Dissassembling the tree, packing up all the decorations to store in the garage for another year, taking down the outside lights. It has been a good holiday season with much fun and festivity. Usually I make one new year's resolution. A habit to break or to improve on, nothing has come to mind yet.

Monday evening I'm flying to Modesto for the week, Jason, Kel, Naia and Gabriel will all arrive on Tuesday. Not much focus on today I suppose, very excited to see them and to spend time together.

I was looking for a picture to sum up this past year for me. This is the one, I decided to call it "Perspective". It is a view from the lawn at the Getty, at the bottom of a very tall sort of retaining wall. When you lay on the ground this is the view of the top of the building directly above the wall. Nothing but blue sky, that's my perspective.

Merry Christmas!

Holiday festivies started at Dave and Tracy's on Christmas Eve. Mike and Dave do some snacking before dinner.

Natalie, ready to go!

Amber, Joey, Matt, Kiera and Natalie all wait for the signal to unwrap.

Natalie's princess pillowcases.

Our living room Christmas morning after Santa was here.

Kiera carefully chooses the next present to be unwrapped.

Ipod Nano happiness!

From Honey and Adad.

Kiera and Zoey.

Today we are relaxing and chatting with family and friends on the phone. Tomorrow Ryan, Jess, Peggi, Dave and Naomi will all visit and have dinner. The weather is sunny, dry and mild, the perfect Southern California holiday weather as we wrap up another Christmas.

Joy and Gratitude

Today on Christmas Eve I am feeling this; joy and gratitude. Not happy and thankful, there is a difference and maybe it is semantics but here you are.
Happy; state of well being and contentment.
Joy; To Rejoice, to feel great delight, to enjoy. That is how I feel, delight in all we are fortunate to have with our family and friends. To share with those we love.
Thankful; conscious of benefit received.
Grateful; affording pleasure and contentment.
Pleasure, that is my feeling. Pleasure in the calmness and serenity of life today. Pleasure in living in and enjoying and appreciating the present and in looking to the future.

Jason, Kelly, Naia and Gabriel are winging their way towards Eugene today. We are all excited to talk with them in our own time zone, and to spend time together in two weeks.
Shannon, Brandon, Jenna and Allyson are prepared for their Christmas in Modesto with Brandon's family and all the cousins. In two weeks their house is where we will all congregate.

Kiera is thriving, growing and learning every day and becoming an amazing young person.
Ryan and Jess are looking to the future, their wedding in the coming year and continuing to build their life together.

Mike and I are confident in our ability to move forward together, and to use our love and commitment to each other to conquer any adversity and to support others when they need us.

Christmas, the New Year are such times of hope and renewal.

Merry Christmas to all and may your New Year bring peace and joy to your life and the lives of those you love.

Gayle, Mike and Kiera

Holiday Ready

On Thanksgiving weekend we bring out our collection of Christmas coffee/cocoa mugs and do our best to only use a holiday mug.

The process of putting up villages is a messy business.

Kiera's completed Department 56 Snow Village, 2009 arrangement.
The holiday living room. Villages now require three seperate locations. North Pole editions are on the bench and the lamp table behind the tree.
Our big fake tree, every branch a perfect branch for the many ornaments we've collected over the years.
Zoey, sporting her Christmas bandana after the visit by the groomer.
The front view, with that nice shot of our tree in the window. This is the first year we set the tree in the center and while it takes up a bit more living room space the view is worth it.
And what says Season's Greetings better than lights on the palm trees.

Merry Christmas To All!

Nick's Quilt

Nick turned 18 this past June. Two years ago for his 16th birthday, and Stevi's 13th in July of the same year, I gave them each a smaller sized quilt. At the time I thought that if for no other reason they would like the quilts because they came from their Nana Gayle. They loved the quilts. Nick is especially attached to his, so much so that I told him for this 18th birthday I would make him a bed sized quilt. One day last spring Nick and I got on the phone, and both went online to browse and choose and order the fabric for his quilt. It was to be music themed and duplicate the bold colors of his first quilt. The red in this quilt matches the border of the smaller one.

I used a twelve inch block of a design that I am particularly fond of since the finished product appears much more complicated than it really is. It is also a design that shows off the variety of prints and colors we picked very well.

The full finished quilt.

A close up of a block.

Nick's quilt was my first ever two sided creation. Since I ordered all of the fabrics online I purchased extra, knowing there might not be any opportunity to get more if I ran short on anything. This gave me enough to do a larger, much more simple, quilt design for the backing.

This year for Nick's birthday and graduation he received a new Les Paul guitar. Les Paul died this year and I discovered a quote from one of the last interviews he gave and when Tomi did her work on the stitching I had her include this on the back. I apologize for the orientation, nothing I did would upload this correctly.

Nick and his Les Paul.

While visiting Modesto I took the quilt along to finish the hand stitching of the binding. This is the final step to any quilt and where I believe the karma of the quilt gets added. Jenna was interested in lending a hand and as a result the binding of Nick's quilt contains some very special stitching. (that is removable if he likes)

Things We Did In November

November 14th we made a trip back to The Getty museum. A trip we have talked about since our first visit almost two years ago. Our plan this time was to go later in the day in order to be there at sunset and after dark. We had a clear day and much better views than our original trip. We arrived with the lunch we packed and relaxed on the lawn. Then made our way to the photo exhibit that was our primary goal, and afterwards wandered the many incredible exhibits that are part of the Getty collection. This amazing collection is free and the only fee is parking at the bottom of the hill before you take the monorail up to the grounds.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The weekend before Thanksgiving Kiera and I made a trip to Modesto. Spent some time hanging with Shannon, Brandon, Jenna and Allyson.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thanksgiving we spent at the Catron's and although I took my camera with me and we had a wonderful day as always, here is the only picture I took!